So, two weeks ago Taylor Swift performed at the American Music
Awards. Now – in her latest roundhouse kick to the face of the powers
that be – she is releasing a documentary on Netflix. That’s the power of
social media, my friends.

Netflix has confirmed that it will begin streaming ‘Taylor
Swift: Miss Americana’ early next year, after the film first premieres
at the Sundance Film Festival on 23 Jan. The documentary, the company
promises, will deliver “a raw and emotionally revealing look at one of
the most iconic artists of our time during a transformational period in
her life as she learns to embrace her role not only as a songwriter and
performer, but as a woman harnessing the full power of her voice”.

That voice has been largely used recently to speak out against
her former label Big Machine – including claiming that it was seeking to
block her AMA performance and this documentary.

The musician began speaking out against Big Machine earlier this year, of course, after Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings bought the record company.
At the time Swift said that the deal, which included the recording
rights in all but her most recent album, was her “worst case scenario”,
because, she said, Braun has a history of bullying her.

Big Machine has denied that it ever attempted to veto anything
– although her people have countered that the company never actually
addressed her specific allegations. The label could not stop her from
performing at the awards ceremony anyway, but it was claimed that Big
Machine was using a seldom, if ever, used (in this context) right over
re-records to stop the performance appearing on TV catch up services. In
the case of the Netflix film, Swift said that Big Machine was
withholding permission to use archive music and footage.

That just left the Netflix film, which got a little forgotten
among the more pressing scrutiny of the AMAs issue. When it commented on
her initial allegations, Big Machine said: “At no point did we …
block her Netflix special … Since Taylor’s decision to leave [us] last
fall, we have continued to honour all of her requests to license her
catalogue to third parties as she promotes her current record in which
we do not financially participate”.

With no further public statement on this issue from Swift or
Big Machine – or Netflix for that matter – we don’t know if any deal was
ultimately done. Or, indeed, had already been done. Netflix could try
to put out the documentary with unlicensed Big Machine material and
claim doing so was covered by the ‘fair use’ principle under US
copyright law. Though doing so would be messy and, technically, only
cover the video-on-demand service in America.

So it seems likely that Big Machine has provided the necessary
licence. Maybe it was always going to. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe Taylor’s
public ranting secured the necessary deal. Maybe her angry fans did it.
Maybe her angry fans (and opportunistic American politicians)
shouting at Braun’s financial backer did it. Maybe the deal was done
even before Swift started ranting. Maybe she’s a liar. Maybe he’s a
liar. Maybe they’re a liar. Maybe everyone’s a liar.

But hey, come on now. It’s nearly Christmas. Can’t we all just get along? Maybe we could go and buy a Christmas tree together. You know, from a Christmas tree farm. Like the one Swift has just written a song about. In a tweet yesterday, she told fans that she’d written this festive track recently, but it “seemed weird to just wait a year to put it out”, so she’s dumping it on us now.

Here it is then – with no involvement from Big Machine, so no chance of a fight (not even a snowball fight) – Taylor Swift’s new seasonal tune, ‘Christmas Tree Farm’: